Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering Department
Volgenau School of Engineering
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

The future begins today. We are all fascinated by the promises and miracles of the 21st century, but we rarely realize that we control and create the future. Our civilization is gradually evolving. Its evolution sometimes seems to be chaotic, with occasionally occurring revolutionary paradigm changes. These changes are always driven by innovations, by the applied inventions. The domain of innovation deals with the discovery of new knowledge, with using it to produce inventions, and finally with converting these inventions into applied technological innovations, into new products and processes, which change our life and drive the progress of our civilization.

Recent years witness the emergence of information technology, which is understood here as the domain dealing with the foundations of acquisition, processing, and utilization of knowledge in technology and in our society. Information technology has tremendous impact on innovation, since it is a domain exclusively driven by innovation. Therefore, it always demands progress in the science of innovation, usually called "Inventive Engineering." Also, information technology provides tools and processes, which can be used to invent and implement new engineering systems, actual and abstract. The feedback between innovation and information technology is the mechanism responsible for our present wealth. It also guarantees that our civilization will evolve in the desired direction satisfying our growing needs, bringing life improvements in the developing countries and stabilizing the world peace.

For all these reasons, I believe that the interrelated Information Technology and Inventive Engineering will shape the future of our civilization. Therefore, my mission is to explore these two areas, try to integrate them and to advance Inventive Engineering in order to accelerate the pace of changes in engineering.

My vision is new IT- and Inventive Engineering-driven engineering, in which IT and innovation are the driving forces in teaching, research, and design practice. I work hard to implement my vision in all my present activities.